This project examines the paintings of portraitists working within the eighteenth-century British Atlantic world, demonstrating the impact of mobility on artistic practice and portraiture on identity construction. Considering a network of about ten portraitists, the canvases they produce, and the travel of both individuals and images throughout the British Atlantic in the mid eighteenth century, this study identifies a shift in the construction of artistic communities as artists take to sea. By considering portraits and conversation pieces across the Atlantic rim, this project reveals visual convergences (in empire-wide visual conventions) and divergences (between local idioms in various port cities) that illustrate the development of regional identities within imperial conventions.

Author Talk, Public Program Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution1 May 2013.Wednesday, 6:00PM - 7:00PMLocation: Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St., BrooklineNathaniel PhilbrickNathaniel Philbrick, the bestselling author of In the Heart of the Sea and ...

Nathaniel Philbrick, the bestselling author of In the Heart of the Sea and Mayflower, brings his prodigious talents to the story of the first major battle of the American Revolution. Boston in 1775 is an island city occupied by British troops after a series of incendiary incidents by patriots who range from sober citizens to thuggish vigilantes. After the Boston Tea Party, British and American soldiers and Massachusetts residents have warily maneuvered around each other until 19 April, when violence finally erupts at Lexington and Concord. In June, however, with the city cut off from supplies by a British blockade and Patriot militia poised in siege, skirmishes give way to outright war in the Battle of Bunker Hill. It would be the bloodiest battle of the Revolution to come, and the point of no return for the rebellious colonists.

Nathaniel Philbrick is the New York Times bestselling author of National Book Award winner In the Heart of the Sea, Pulitzer Prize finalist Mayflower, Sea of Glory, and The Last Stand. He is also the author of Why Read Moby- Dick? and Away Off Shore. He lives on Nantucket.

Public Program, Exhibition The Three Lives of Anthony Burns3 May 2013.Friday, 2:00PM - 3:00PMExhibition SpotlightPeter Drummey, Massachusetts Historical SocietyThe rendition of Anthony Burns—his return from Boston to slavery in 1854—was a turning ...

The rendition of Anthony Burns—his return from Boston to slavery in 1854—was a turning point in the Abolitionist struggle. But who was Anthony Burns? A fugitive slave? A symbol of the antislavery cause in Boston? What happened to him after he was freed and his celebrity faded? We will explore the heroic, and tragic, life of Anthony Burns through documents on display at the Society.

Madison's Notes with his revisions remain the most prominent remnants of the Convention in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. What does it mean to take seriously that Madison's notes on the Convention are notes? Two hundred and twenty-five years after Madison first wrote the Notes, changing technology makes it possible to revisit the manuscript. This paper will suggest that Madison revised his notes far more extensively than has been previously understood. The revised notes demonstrate that Madison's understanding of the Convention, the Constitution, and his own role changed dramatically between May 1787 and the end of the eighteenth century.

The wide lens of this talk will focus on recent restoration and interpretive efforts including Monticello's work spaces beneath the house, public rooms, and upper floors as well as Mulberry Row, the plantation's principal street. The discussion will also describe Monticello's free and enslaved community. Susan R. Stein is the longtime Richard Gilder Senior Curator and Vice President for Museum Programs.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

How did a fiery abolitionist senator and a genteel poet come together as the closest of friends? Presented as a dramatic reading of actual historic documents - including letters, journals, poetry, and speeches - this program will highlight the deep personal relationship shared between abolitionist politician Charles Sumner and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The reading takes listeners from the earliest friendship of these two men to their antislavery advocacy, from their personal triumphs and tragedies and into their final years, weaving through the events of the nation including Emancipation.

Stephen Puleo, author of The Caning: The Assault that Drove America to Civil War, will be on hand to provide commentary and sign copies of his book.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation on 1 January 1863, this exhibition features the pen Abraham Lincoln used to sign the document. Visitors can learn how the MHS acquired this extraordinary pen as well as view paintings, broadsides, engravings, and manuscripts that tell the story of how Boston celebrated Emancipation.

Exhibitionends Lincoln in Manuscript & Artifact24 May 2013.Friday, 10:00AM - 4:00PMMonday through Saturday from 10 AM to 4 PMView documents and artifacts related to Abraham Lincoln. Featured items include Lincoln's letter to ...

View documents and artifacts related to Abraham Lincoln. Featured items include Lincoln's letter to Joshua F. Speed explaining his evolving views on slavery as well as the casts of the life mask and hands of Lincoln made by Leonard Volk in the spring of 1860.

In the decades leading up to the Civil War, Boston became a center of the national antislavery movement, and in 1831 William Lloyd Garrison, "all on fire" for the cause, began publication of The Liberator, the country's leading abolitionist newspaper. There was strong resistance to the radical movement, however, not only in the slaveholding South, but among Northerners' as well. The exhibition features manuscripts, photographs, artifacts—including the imposing stone for The Liberator—and portraits related to the abolitionist movement in Boston.

Runaway slaves who fled to Union lines during the Civil War were known as “contrabands” because of their inclusion in the category of seizeable enemy property under the First and Second Confiscation Acts. The pervasive references to “contraband” in the press, on stage, and in political cartoons suggest that “contraband” became the primary representation of slavery and slaves during the Civil War, much in the way that “Uncle Tom” had in the 1850s. This talk will explore the ways in which contraband men and women enacted their own representations of their changing status and slave experience and through everyday performance in the contraband camps, challenging competing representations of race, gender, and slavery in the process.

Public Program Sounds of the Civil War29 May 2013.Wednesday, 6:00PM - 8:00PMPlease RSVPBoston Saxophone QuartetSing along with the Boston Saxophone Quartet as we explore the music of the Civil War era. This ...

Sing along with the Boston Saxophone Quartet as we explore the music of the Civil War era. This program will feature familiar tunes from the 1860s that were sung around the parlor piano, as well as songs written specifically for the newest instrument of the era: the saxophone. The evening will include musical performances and historical commentary on the selected pieces. Members of the Boston Saxophone Quartet have performed with the Boston Pops and Boston Symphony Orchestra and leading Broadway theaters throughout New England. Conductor and instrumentalist Peter Cokkinias, Professor at neighboring Berklee College of Music, has served for over 30 seasons as Music Director/Conductor of the Metrowest Symphony Orchestra; has conducted the Boston Ballet and Boston Pops; and has performed with the Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Ballet, and Cincinnati, Hartford, Pittsburgh, and Boston Symphony Orchestras.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Join us on Monday, June 3rd at the Hogan Campus Center, College of the Holy Cross, for a thought-provoking day examining myth in Massachusetts history. Ray Raphael, author of the forth-coming Constitutional Myths: What We Get Wrong and How to Get it Right (March 2013), a companion volume to the earlier Founding Myths: Stories that Hide our Patriotic Past, will explore “Why Myths Persist” in his keynote address.

In sessions and round tables such as Massachusetts History beyond the Tea Party; Reinterpretation 101; Redefining Freedom on the Trail, and “It Never Happened Here”: Iconic Myth as Burden we will examine and present organizations, programs and projects that have successfully harnessed myths, expanded their narratives, and redefined their mission without losing their identity. In practical sessions/workshops we will explore “teaching the problem,” and how to use this model for programming purposes in exciting ways that successfully challenge audiences.

Public Program, Author Talk, Brown Bag What "The Federalist Papers" Are Not4 June 2013.Tuesday, 12:00PM - 1:00PMRay RaphaelWhen and why did The Federalist become The Federalist Papers? What role did the ...

When and why did The Federalist become The Federalist Papers? What role did the essays play in the ratification debates? Can Publius be considered an authoritative source for interpreting specific sections of the Constitution – or for discovering its inner meaning?

Ray Raphael’s latest book is Constitutional Myths: What We Get Wrong and How To Get It Right. His previous works include Mr. President: How and Why the Founders Created a Chief Executive, Founding Myths, A People’s History of the American Revolution, and The First American Revolution: Before Lexington and Concord.

The project traces the historical roots of contemporary concerns about college students' alcohol use. The brown bag session will specifically focus on college students and alcohol between 1820 and 1860. The diaries that antebellum college men kept reveal students' drinking behaviors, the meanings they made from alcohol, and their reactions to and involvement in the temperance movement.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Special Event MHS Annual Meeting12 June 2013.Wednesday, 5:00PM - 6:00PMSpecial event for MHS FellowsMHS Fellows are invited to attend the Society's annual business meeting followed by a program and ...

MHS Fellows are invited to attend the Society's annual business meeting followed by a program and preview reception for The Object of History: 18th-Century Treasures from the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. RSVP required.

5:00 PMAnnual Meeting for elected MHS Fellows

6:00 PM Remarks by Stephen T. Riley Librarian Peter Drummey followed by a reception and exhibition preview for MHS Fellows and Members

Following the Society's annual business meeting, MHS Fellows and Members are invited to a special preview reception of The Object of History: 18th-Century Treasures from the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The evening will begin with remarks by Stephen T. Riley Librarian Peter Drummey. A reception and exhibition preview will follow. The exhibition highlights 18th-century treasures from the Society's collections including portraits, needlework, firearms, clothing, furniture, silver, documents, and books.

“Estlin Cummings Wild West Show” features a selection of E.E. Cummings’s childhood writings and drawings, showcasing the young poet’s earliest experiments with words and illustrations. Drawings and paintings include ink blots, watercolors, and sketches in pen and pencil of cowboys and Indians, boats, the “world’s tallest tower,” wild west shows, hunting expeditions, locomotives, zoos, circuses, elephants, and house plans.

Image: “Estlin Cummings Wild West Show,” drawing by E. E. Cummings. From the Cummings-Clarke family papers. Artwork by E.E. Cummings. Used by permission of the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust.

From 13 June through 7 September, the Society will display letters written by John and Abigail Adams to each other, to their children, and to friends and family regarding their views on education.

In a letter to his wife, Abigail, dated August 28, 1774, John Adams writes: “The Education of our Children is never out of my Mind. Train them to Virtue, habituate them to industry, activity, and Spirit. Make them consider every Vice, as shamefull and unmanly: fire them with Ambition to be usefull-make them disdain to be destitute of any usefull, or ornamental Knowledge or Accomplishment. Fix their Ambition upon great and solid Objects, and their Contempt upon little, frivolous, and useless ones.”

What is the meaning of historical objects? Why are they preserved, and why have they survived? Are they valued for their associations with notable historical figures or landmark events, as objects of beauty, as the survival of relics from a distant past, or for the stories they convey? The exhibition explores these questions through the display of 18th-century portraits and objects from the Society's collections, along with rarely seen engravings, needlework, maps, weapons, furniture, clothing, scientific instruments, and silver.

Public Program, Exhibition Curator's Choice14 June 2013.Friday, 2:00PM - 3:00PMExhibition SpotlightJ. L. BellJ.L. Bell will discuss the provenance, history, and people connected with one of the fascinating ...

J.L. Bell will discuss the provenance, history, and people connected with one of the fascinating items featured in The Object of History exhibition: Ephraim Moors's powder horn. Carvings on the horn icnlude a crude drawing of the Continental Army encampment on Winter Hill, five grenadiers, a mansion house, and the head of a beast. Aside from what the carving itself says and the name of the sea captain who donated it to the Society, almost nothing else is known about this object. Bell will discuss his investigation into the object's details, and what they tell us about the Siege of Boston.

J. L.Bell is a Massachusetts writer who specializes in (among other things) the start of the American Revolution in and around Boston. His blog, Boston1775.net, features "history, analysis, and unabashed gossip about the start of the American Revolution in Massachusetts."

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Public Program, Conversation The Object of History: A Conversation17 June 2013.Monday, 6:00PM - 7:30PMPlease RSVPPre-Talk Reception at 5:30 PMDavid Wood, Concord Museum & Peter Drummey, Massachusetts Historical SocietyPart of "The Object of History" seriesDavid Wood, the curator of the Concord Museum, and Peter Drummey, the Librarian for the Society, ...

David Wood, the curator of the Concord Museum, and Peter Drummey, the Librarian for the Society, will discuss early works of art, artifacts, and documents on display at the MHS as part of The Object of History exhibition.

The Object of HistoryA series of chats with MHS Librarian Peter Drummey about what documents and artifacts from the collections can tell us about the characters, events, and issues of the past, as well as the role of MHS in documenting the rich history of our state and nation.

In the 1880s, the field of sexology declared masculine women to be inverts—true homosexuals. Prior to this period, representations of gender crossings were more varied and common. Such representations shine a spotlight on some of the most obvious anxieties concerning women’s place in society as well as the constitutive relationships between sex, gender, and sexuality.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

At its height in the late eighteenth century, Jamaica was the most valuable and productive of Britain’s colonial possessions in the Atlantic world. Yet intertwined with Jamaica’s reputation for unparalleled profit was a growing apprehension of settler degeneration—in manners, morals, bloodlines, and especially life expectancy. The island, as one would-be colonist put it, offers “the most flattering prospect of pecuniary acquisition or death.” Such notions signify Britain’s ambivalent and contradictory relationship with Jamaica, and the West India colonies more generally, during the era of slavery.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

This program will present research from a project that investigates social and environmental change along the far Pacific coast of North America from 1760 through 1820 by focusing on knowledge of and labor in the region’s oceanic and littoral landscapes. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, Spanish missionaries and soldiers, Russian hunters, and British traders, as well as New England-based merchants and sailors, began traversing North America’s Pacific coast, forming new relationships between these ocean-based travelers, North American indigenous peoples, and the coastal environment. Using the logs and diaries of sailors as well as the journals, account books, and letters of merchants, the brown-bag presentation will focus on the specific ways that “Boston men” and their backers understood, approached, and literally navigated the physical and the social geographies of the North American Pacific.

In 1803 and 1804 New Englanders warily eyed their country's vast new acquisition. Some worried that Louisiana was a “savage,” uncivilized land that would corrupt the new nation; others that it would reduce the already-declining political importance of New England; others that it would become a new addition to the “empire of slavery.” Still others, however, especially Jeffersonian republicans, dismissed these and other concerns and celebrated the Purchase and the economic opportunities it would bring. A few went so far as to move south in search of fortunes in the Orleans Territory.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Public Program, Teacher Workshopbegins Old Towns/New Country: The First Years of a New Nation15 July 2013.Monday, 8:30AM - 3:30PMThis workshop will take place at the Massachusetts Historical SocietyThis two-day workshop will focus on how to use local resources – documents, artifacts, ...

This two-day workshop will focus on how to use local resources – documents, artifacts, landscapes and the rich expertise in every town – to examine historical issues with a national focus. We will concentrate on the period just after the Revolution and the concerns and conflicts, hopes and fears, experiences and expectations of the people living in the Boston area at a time of uncertainty, fragility, and possibility. We will investigate such questions as: What was it like to live in a town that had been around for a long time in a country that was new? When the nation was first forming after the Revolution, what were people in our town/region worried about? How much did the geography, economy, culture, and social makeup of our region influence those concerns? How can we find out? What resources/pieces of evidence does our community have that relate to this time period and the people living in it? How can we best present this evidence and allow people of all ages to discover answers to some of these questions? How does our local focus add a crucial dimension to our understanding of a key period in American history?

The workshop is open to teachers, librarians, archivists, members of local historical societies, and all interested local history enthusiasts. Workshop faculty will include Jayne Gordon and Kathleen Barker of the MHS Department of Education and Public Programs, Historian Benjamin Park, MHS Teacher Fellow Betsy Lambert, and Elaine Grublin, MHS Head of Reader Services. There is a $25 charge to cover lunches both days; program and material costs have been generously funded by the Saltonstall Foundation. Educators can earn 14 PDPs and 1 Graduate Credit (for an additional fee) from Framingham State University.

Additional two-day workshops will be held in the Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area towns of Leominster and Lancaster (central Massachusetts) on July 30/31, at Coolidge Point in Manchester (North Shore) on August 13/14, and in Pittsfield (Berkshires) on November 8/9.

Fashion Across Borders and Seas: Print Culture, Women’s Networks, and the Creation of Feminine Identities in the British Atlantic World, 1750-1900 examines the diverse media through which women learned about fashion, and how ideas of fashion were circulated around and between Britain and the United States from the time of the enigmatic fashion doll, to the birth of modern advertising.

This project considers how the circulation of visual and material sources for fashion information such as fashion dolls, portraits, fashion illustrations, cartes-de-visite and advertisements, as well as fashion accessories created through reproductive processes such as fans and shawls, was as much a process of learning as it was of sharing. The circulation of these objects enabled women to form valuable networks whereby ideas of femininity, politics, national identity and imperialism were created, solidified and challenged.

Public Program, Teacher Workshopends Old Towns/New Country: The First Years of a New Nation16 July 2013.Tuesday, 8:30AM - 3:30PMThis workshop will take place at the Massachusetts Historical SocietyThis two-day workshop will focus on how to use local resources – documents, artifacts, ...

This two-day workshop will focus on how to use local resources – documents, artifacts, landscapes and the rich expertise in every town – to examine historical issues with a national focus. We will concentrate on the period just after the Revolution and the concerns and conflicts, hopes and fears, experiences and expectations of the people living in the Boston area at a time of uncertainty, fragility, and possibility. We will investigate such questions as: What was it like to live in a town that had been around for a long time in a country that was new? When the nation was first forming after the Revolution, what were people in our town/region worried about? How much did the geography, economy, culture, and social makeup of our region influence those concerns? How can we find out? What resources/pieces of evidence does our community have that relate to this time period and the people living in it? How can we best present this evidence and allow people of all ages to discover answers to some of these questions? How does our local focus add a crucial dimension to our understanding of a key period in American history?

The workshop is open to teachers, librarians, archivists, members of local historical societies, and all interested local history enthusiasts. Workshop faculty will include Jayne Gordon and Kathleen Barker of the MHS Department of Education and Public Programs, Historian Benjamin Park, MHS Teacher Fellow Betsy Lambert, and Elaine Grublin, MHS Head of Reader Services. There is a $25 charge to cover lunches both days; program and material costs have been generously funded by the Saltonstall Foundation. Educators can earn 14 PDPs and 1 Graduate Credit (for an additional fee) from Framingham State University.

Additional two-day workshops will be held in the Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area towns of Leominster and Lancaster (central Massachusetts) on July 30/31, at Coolidge Point in Manchester (North Shore) on August 13/14, and in Pittsfield (Berkshires) on November 8/9.

A discussion of research into a hub of bibliomaniacs associated with the early years of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Among the circle of learned historians, friends of dusty research and poetry, were George Livermore, Charles Deane, Alexander Young, and Edward Crowninshield. Livermore was fond of bibles and illustrated and large paper copies, and Deane kept minutes of his painstaking bibliographic and historical research on fly-leaves, margins, memoranda, and scraps of paper scattered between the pages of his 13,000 books. Together, these amateur men of letters provide a unique outlook on the culture of book collecting and the formation of private and public libraries in mid-19th-century America.

Public Program Lest We Forget: The Massachusetts 54th18 July 2013.Thursday, 12:00PM - 1:00PMNoah GriffinJoin us as we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment's attack ...

Join us as we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment's attack against Fort Wagner, South Carolina. The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment was the first military unit consisting of black soldiers to be raised in the North during the Civil War. Prior to 1863, no concerted effort was made to recruit black troops as Union soldiers. The passage of the Emancipation Proclamation in December of 1862 provided the impetus for the use of free black men as soldiers and, at a time when state governors were responsible for the raising of regiments for federal service, Massachusetts was the first to respond with the formation of the Fifty-fourth Regiment.

Our guest speaker, Noah Griffin, is a man of many talents. Educated at Harvard Law, Yale and Fisk University, he spent 35 years in government, politics, media, and journalism before embarking on a career as a singer, actor, and inspirational speaker. Visit his website to learn more about his work: http://www.noahgriffin.com/Home.html.

Learn more about the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth, as well as the Society's manuscripts and photograph collections related to the regiment at our 54th Regiment! site.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

This project reconstructs the business and political methods of post-revolutionary land speculators, aiming to trace the causes and consequences of the early republic's first wave of large-scale land speculation, from 1776 to 1812. In routing their capital through the new nation’s most important resource, land speculators situated themselves at the center of contentious debates about property, equality, and political economy in a democratic republic. Speculators sought to profit off the extension of the United States' revolutionary republican society; in the process, their methods shaped and changed the Revolution's outcome.

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

The People's Martyr tells the story of the life of Thomas Wilson Dorr and the 1842 rebellion in Rhode Island that bears his name. Thomas Dorr's attempt at constitutional reform set off a firestorm of debate over the nature of the people's sovereignty in Jacksonian America. Historian Erik J. Chaput devotes particular attention to issues of gender and race, especially the profound fears held by southern politicians that Dorr's ideology would lead to slave insurrections.

Erik J. Chaput received his doctorate in early American History from Syracuse University in 2011. Chaput is on the faculty in the School of Continuing Education at Providence College. Dr. Chaput's research has appeared in numerous publications, including Rhode Island History, Common-Place, American Nineteenth Century History, The New England Quarterly, the U.S. Catholic Historian, The Catholic Historical Review, Historical New Hampshire, and the Historical Journal of Massachusetts. Chaput is the co-editor with Russell J. DeSimone of a digital edition of the letters of Thomas Wilson Dorr. The letters are avilable on the Dorr Rebellion project site hosted by Providence College.

Teacher Workshop, Public Programbegins Old Towns/New Country: The First Years of a New Nation30 July 2013.Tuesday, 8:30AM - 3:30PMThis workshop will take place in Lancaster & Leominster, Massachusetts, in partnership with the Freedom's Way National Heritage Area.This two-day workshop will focus on how to use local resources – documents, artifacts, ...

This two-day workshop will focus on how to use local resources – documents, artifacts, landscapes and the rich expertise in every town – to examine historical issues with a national focus. We will concentrate on the period just after the Revolution and the concerns and conflicts, hopes and fears, experiences and expectations of the people living in the Boston area at a time of uncertainty, fragility, and possibility. We will investigate such questions as: What was it like to live in a town that had been around for a long time in a country that was new? When the nation was first forming after the Revolution, what were people in our town/region worried about? How much did the geography, economy, culture, and social makeup of our region influence those concerns? How can we find out? What resources/pieces of evidence does our community have that relate to this time period and the people living in it? How can we best present this evidence and allow people of all ages to discover answers to some of these questions? How does our local focus add a crucial dimension to our understanding of a key period in American history?

The workshop is open to teachers, librarians, archivists, members of local historical societies, and all interested local history enthusiasts. Workshop faculty will include Jayne Gordon and Kathleen Barker of the MHS Department of Education and Public Programs, Freedom's Way Director of Education Maud Ayson, Historian Mary Fuhrer, MHS Teacher Fellow Timothy Castner, and Nancy Heywood, MHS Digital Projects Coordinator. Additional partners include the Freedom's Way National Heritage Area, Leominster Public Library, and the First Church of Lancaster. There is a $25 charge to cover lunches both days; program and material costs have been generously funded by the Saltonstall Foundation. Educators can earn 14 PDPs and 1 Graduate Credit (for an additional fee) from Framingham State University.

Additional two-day workshops will be held in Boston on July 15/16, at Coolidge Point in Manchester (North Shore) on August 13/14, and in Pittsfield (Berkshires) on November 8/9.

Teacher Workshop, Public Programends Old Towns/New Country: The First Years of a New Nation31 July 2013.Wednesday, 8:30AM - 3:30PMThis workshop will take place in Lancaster & Leominster, Massachusetts, in partnership with the Freedom's Way National Heritage Area.This two-day workshop will focus on how to use local resources – documents, artifacts, ...

This two-day workshop will focus on how to use local resources – documents, artifacts, landscapes and the rich expertise in every town – to examine historical issues with a national focus. We will concentrate on the period just after the Revolution and the concerns and conflicts, hopes and fears, experiences and expectations of the people living in the Boston area at a time of uncertainty, fragility, and possibility. We will investigate such questions as: What was it like to live in a town that had been around for a long time in a country that was new? When the nation was first forming after the Revolution, what were people in our town/region worried about? How much did the geography, economy, culture, and social makeup of our region influence those concerns? How can we find out? What resources/pieces of evidence does our community have that relate to this time period and the people living in it? How can we best present this evidence and allow people of all ages to discover answers to some of these questions? How does our local focus add a crucial dimension to our understanding of a key period in American history?

The workshop is open to teachers, librarians, archivists, members of local historical societies, and all interested local history enthusiasts. Workshop faculty will include Jayne Gordon and Kathleen Barker of the MHS Department of Education and Public Programs, Freedom's Way Director of Education Maud Ayson, Historian Mary Fuhrer, MHS Teacher Fellow Timothy Castner, and Nancy Heywood, MHS Digital Projects Coordinator. Additional partners include the Freedom's Way National Heritage Area, Leominster Public Library, and the First Church of Lancaster. There is a $25 charge to cover lunches both days; program and material costs have been generously funded by the Saltonstall Foundation. Educators can earn 14 PDPs and 1 Graduate Credit (for an additional fee) from Framingham State University.

Additional two-day workshops will be held in Boston on July 15/16, at Coolidge Point in Manchester (North Shore) on August 13/14, and in Pittsfield (Berkshires) on November 8/9.

This project examines confluences between the scientific and progressive ideas associated with the early English Enlightenment and the concurrent proliferation of Caribbean slave plantations. Through a study of sugar plantations, it demonstrates how both slavery and the Enlightenment shared common roots within the expansionist discourse of natural science in the late seventeenth century.

This project examines the paintings of portraitists working within the eighteenth-century British Atlantic world, demonstrating the impact of mobility on artistic practice and portraiture on identity construction. Considering a network of about ten portraitists, the canvases they produce, and the travel of both individuals and images throughout the British Atlantic in the mid eighteenth century, this study identifies a shift in the construction of artistic communities as artists take to sea. By considering portraits and conversation pieces across the Atlantic rim, this project reveals visual convergences (in empire-wide visual conventions) and divergences (between local idioms in various port cities) that illustrate the development of regional identities within imperial conventions.

Nathaniel Philbrick, the bestselling author of In the Heart of the Sea and Mayflower, brings his prodigious talents to the story of the first major battle of the American Revolution. Boston in 1775 is an island city occupied by British troops after a series of incendiary incidents by patriots who range from sober citizens to thuggish vigilantes. After the Boston Tea Party, British and American soldiers and Massachusetts residents have warily maneuvered around each other until 19 April, when violence finally erupts at Lexington and Concord. In June, however, with the city cut off from supplies by a British blockade and Patriot militia poised in siege, skirmishes give way to outright war in the Battle of Bunker Hill. It would be the bloodiest battle of the Revolution to come, and the point of no return for the rebellious colonists.

Nathaniel Philbrick is the New York Times bestselling author of National Book Award winner In the Heart of the Sea, Pulitzer Prize finalist Mayflower, Sea of Glory, and The Last Stand. He is also the author of Why Read Moby- Dick? and Away Off Shore. He lives on Nantucket.

The rendition of Anthony Burns—his return from Boston to slavery in 1854—was a turning point in the Abolitionist struggle. But who was Anthony Burns? A fugitive slave? A symbol of the antislavery cause in Boston? What happened to him after he was freed and his celebrity faded? We will explore the heroic, and tragic, life of Anthony Burns through documents on display at the Society.

Early American History SeminarMadison’s Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention7 May 2013.Tuesday, 5:15PM - 7:30PMSeminars are free and open to the public; RSVP required.Subscribe to received advance copies of the seminar papers.Mary Sarah Bilder, Boston College Law SchoolPauline Maier, MIT

Madison's Notes with his revisions remain the most prominent remnants of the Convention in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. What does it mean to take seriously that Madison's notes on the Convention are notes? Two hundred and twenty-five years after Madison first wrote the Notes, changing technology makes it possible to revisit the manuscript. This paper will suggest that Madison revised his notes far more extensively than has been previously understood. The revised notes demonstrate that Madison's understanding of the Convention, the Constitution, and his own role changed dramatically between May 1787 and the end of the eighteenth century.

The wide lens of this talk will focus on recent restoration and interpretive efforts including Monticello's work spaces beneath the house, public rooms, and upper floors as well as Mulberry Row, the plantation's principal street. The discussion will also describe Monticello's free and enslaved community. Susan R. Stein is the longtime Richard Gilder Senior Curator and Vice President for Museum Programs.

MHS TourMHS Tour: The History and Collections of the MHS11 May 2013.Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:30AMthis event is free

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Brown BagCotton Mather Encounters the Gods of Egypt: The Transatlantic Enlightenment and the Origin of Pagan Religions15 May 2013.Wednesday, 12:00PM - 1:00PMthis event is freeReiner Smolinski, Georgia State University

This brown-bag lunch presentation is based on Professor Smolinski's ongoing work for his new intellectual biography of Cotton Mather, forthcoming from Yale University Press.

How did a fiery abolitionist senator and a genteel poet come together as the closest of friends? Presented as a dramatic reading of actual historic documents - including letters, journals, poetry, and speeches - this program will highlight the deep personal relationship shared between abolitionist politician Charles Sumner and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The reading takes listeners from the earliest friendship of these two men to their antislavery advocacy, from their personal triumphs and tragedies and into their final years, weaving through the events of the nation including Emancipation.

Stephen Puleo, author of The Caning: The Assault that Drove America to Civil War, will be on hand to provide commentary and sign copies of his book.

MHS TourMHS Tour: The History and Collections of the MHS18 May 2013.Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:30AMthis event is free

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation on 1 January 1863, this exhibition features the pen Abraham Lincoln used to sign the document. Visitors can learn how the MHS acquired this extraordinary pen as well as view paintings, broadsides, engravings, and manuscripts that tell the story of how Boston celebrated Emancipation.

View documents and artifacts related to Abraham Lincoln. Featured items include Lincoln's letter to Joshua F. Speed explaining his evolving views on slavery as well as the casts of the life mask and hands of Lincoln made by Leonard Volk in the spring of 1860.

In the decades leading up to the Civil War, Boston became a center of the national antislavery movement, and in 1831 William Lloyd Garrison, "all on fire" for the cause, began publication of The Liberator, the country's leading abolitionist newspaper. There was strong resistance to the radical movement, however, not only in the slaveholding South, but among Northerners' as well. The exhibition features manuscripts, photographs, artifacts—including the imposing stone for The Liberator—and portraits related to the abolitionist movement in Boston.

Brown BagConfiscated Voices: Representing the Slave Experience during the American Civil War29 May 2013.Wednesday, 12:00PM - 1:00PMthis event is freeHeather Cooper, University of Iowa

Runaway slaves who fled to Union lines during the Civil War were known as “contrabands” because of their inclusion in the category of seizeable enemy property under the First and Second Confiscation Acts. The pervasive references to “contraband” in the press, on stage, and in political cartoons suggest that “contraband” became the primary representation of slavery and slaves during the Civil War, much in the way that “Uncle Tom” had in the 1850s. This talk will explore the ways in which contraband men and women enacted their own representations of their changing status and slave experience and through everyday performance in the contraband camps, challenging competing representations of race, gender, and slavery in the process.

Sing along with the Boston Saxophone Quartet as we explore the music of the Civil War era. This program will feature familiar tunes from the 1860s that were sung around the parlor piano, as well as songs written specifically for the newest instrument of the era: the saxophone. The evening will include musical performances and historical commentary on the selected pieces. Members of the Boston Saxophone Quartet have performed with the Boston Pops and Boston Symphony Orchestra and leading Broadway theaters throughout New England. Conductor and instrumentalist Peter Cokkinias, Professor at neighboring Berklee College of Music, has served for over 30 seasons as Music Director/Conductor of the Metrowest Symphony Orchestra; has conducted the Boston Ballet and Boston Pops; and has performed with the Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Ballet, and Cincinnati, Hartford, Pittsburgh, and Boston Symphony Orchestras.

MHS TourMHS Tour: The History and Collections of the MHS1 June 2013.Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:30AMthis event is free

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Conference"Listen my children and you shall hear": Balancing History and Myth in Massachusetts Public History3 June 2013.Monday, 9:00AM - 4:00PMregistration requiredThis conference will take place at the College of the Holy Cross in WorcesterKeynote Speaker:
Ray Raphael, author of Constitutional Myths: What We Get Wrong and How to Get it Right

Join us on Monday, June 3rd at the Hogan Campus Center, College of the Holy Cross, for a thought-provoking day examining myth in Massachusetts history. Ray Raphael, author of the forth-coming Constitutional Myths: What We Get Wrong and How to Get it Right (March 2013), a companion volume to the earlier Founding Myths: Stories that Hide our Patriotic Past, will explore “Why Myths Persist” in his keynote address.

In sessions and round tables such as Massachusetts History beyond the Tea Party; Reinterpretation 101; Redefining Freedom on the Trail, and “It Never Happened Here”: Iconic Myth as Burden we will examine and present organizations, programs and projects that have successfully harnessed myths, expanded their narratives, and redefined their mission without losing their identity. In practical sessions/workshops we will explore “teaching the problem,” and how to use this model for programming purposes in exciting ways that successfully challenge audiences.

When and why did The Federalist become The Federalist Papers? What role did the essays play in the ratification debates? Can Publius be considered an authoritative source for interpreting specific sections of the Constitution – or for discovering its inner meaning?

Ray Raphael’s latest book is Constitutional Myths: What We Get Wrong and How To Get It Right. His previous works include Mr. President: How and Why the Founders Created a Chief Executive, Founding Myths, A People’s History of the American Revolution, and The First American Revolution: Before Lexington and Concord.

Brown BagBetwixt Brewings: A History of College Students and Alcohol5 June 2013.Wednesday, 12:00PM - 1:00PMthis event is freeMichael Hevel, University of Arkansas

The project traces the historical roots of contemporary concerns about college students' alcohol use. The brown bag session will specifically focus on college students and alcohol between 1820 and 1860. The diaries that antebellum college men kept reveal students' drinking behaviors, the meanings they made from alcohol, and their reactions to and involvement in the temperance movement.

MHS TourMHS Tour: The History and Collections of the MHS8 June 2013.Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:30AMthis event is free

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

MHS Fellows are invited to attend the Society's annual business meeting followed by a program and preview reception for The Object of History: 18th-Century Treasures from the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. RSVP required.

5:00 PMAnnual Meeting for elected MHS Fellows

6:00 PM Remarks by Stephen T. Riley Librarian Peter Drummey followed by a reception and exhibition preview for MHS Fellows and Members

Special Event, Member EventPreview Reception for The Object of History: 18th-Century Treasures from the Massachusetts Historical Society12 June 2013.Wednesday, 6:00PM - 7:30PMPlease RSVPregistration required at no costSpecial Event for MHS Fellows and Members

Following the Society's annual business meeting, MHS Fellows and Members are invited to a special preview reception of The Object of History: 18th-Century Treasures from the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The evening will begin with remarks by Stephen T. Riley Librarian Peter Drummey. A reception and exhibition preview will follow. The exhibition highlights 18th-century treasures from the Society's collections including portraits, needlework, firearms, clothing, furniture, silver, documents, and books.

Exhibition"Estlin Cummings Wild West Show"13 June 2013 to 30 August 2013this event is freeMonday through Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm

“Estlin Cummings Wild West Show” features a selection of E.E. Cummings’s childhood writings and drawings, showcasing the young poet’s earliest experiments with words and illustrations. Drawings and paintings include ink blots, watercolors, and sketches in pen and pencil of cowboys and Indians, boats, the “world’s tallest tower,” wild west shows, hunting expeditions, locomotives, zoos, circuses, elephants, and house plans.

Image: “Estlin Cummings Wild West Show,” drawing by E. E. Cummings. From the Cummings-Clarke family papers. Artwork by E.E. Cummings. Used by permission of the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust.

Exhibition"The Education of Our Children Is Never out of My Mind"13 June 2013 to 7 September 2013this event is freeMonday through Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm

From 13 June through 7 September, the Society will display letters written by John and Abigail Adams to each other, to their children, and to friends and family regarding their views on education.

In a letter to his wife, Abigail, dated August 28, 1774, John Adams writes: “The Education of our Children is never out of my Mind. Train them to Virtue, habituate them to industry, activity, and Spirit. Make them consider every Vice, as shamefull and unmanly: fire them with Ambition to be usefull-make them disdain to be destitute of any usefull, or ornamental Knowledge or Accomplishment. Fix their Ambition upon great and solid Objects, and their Contempt upon little, frivolous, and useless ones.”

ExhibitionThe Object of History: 18th-Century Treasures from the Massachusetts Historical Society13 June 2013 to 7 September 2013this event is freeMonday through Saturday, 10 AM to 4 PM

What is the meaning of historical objects? Why are they preserved, and why have they survived? Are they valued for their associations with notable historical figures or landmark events, as objects of beauty, as the survival of relics from a distant past, or for the stories they convey? The exhibition explores these questions through the display of 18th-century portraits and objects from the Society's collections, along with rarely seen engravings, needlework, maps, weapons, furniture, clothing, scientific instruments, and silver.

J.L. Bell will discuss the provenance, history, and people connected with one of the fascinating items featured in The Object of History exhibition: Ephraim Moors's powder horn. Carvings on the horn icnlude a crude drawing of the Continental Army encampment on Winter Hill, five grenadiers, a mansion house, and the head of a beast. Aside from what the carving itself says and the name of the sea captain who donated it to the Society, almost nothing else is known about this object. Bell will discuss his investigation into the object's details, and what they tell us about the Siege of Boston.

J. L.Bell is a Massachusetts writer who specializes in (among other things) the start of the American Revolution in and around Boston. His blog, Boston1775.net, features "history, analysis, and unabashed gossip about the start of the American Revolution in Massachusetts."

MHS TourMHS Tour: The History and Collections of the MHS15 June 2013.Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:30AMthis event is free

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

David Wood, the curator of the Concord Museum, and Peter Drummey, the Librarian for the Society, will discuss early works of art, artifacts, and documents on display at the MHS as part of The Object of History exhibition.

The Object of HistoryA series of chats with MHS Librarian Peter Drummey about what documents and artifacts from the collections can tell us about the characters, events, and issues of the past, as well as the role of MHS in documenting the rich history of our state and nation.

Brown Bag19th-Century Narratives of Transgender Experience & the History of Possibility19 June 2013.Wednesday, 12:00PM - 1:00PMthis event is freeJen Manion, Connecticut College

In the 1880s, the field of sexology declared masculine women to be inverts—true homosexuals. Prior to this period, representations of gender crossings were more varied and common. Such representations shine a spotlight on some of the most obvious anxieties concerning women’s place in society as well as the constitutive relationships between sex, gender, and sexuality.

MHS TourMHS Tour: The History and Collections of the MHS22 June 2013.Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:30AMthis event is free

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Brown BagIsland Masters: Gender, Race, and Power in the Eighteenth-Century British Caribbean26 June 2013.Wednesday, 12:00PM - 1:00PMthis event is freeBrooke Newman, Virginia Commonwealth University

At its height in the late eighteenth century, Jamaica was the most valuable and productive of Britain’s colonial possessions in the Atlantic world. Yet intertwined with Jamaica’s reputation for unparalleled profit was a growing apprehension of settler degeneration—in manners, morals, bloodlines, and especially life expectancy. The island, as one would-be colonist put it, offers “the most flattering prospect of pecuniary acquisition or death.” Such notions signify Britain’s ambivalent and contradictory relationship with Jamaica, and the West India colonies more generally, during the era of slavery.

MHS TourMHS Tour: The History and Collections of the MHS29 June 2013.Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:30AMthis event is free

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Brown BagNavigating the Other North American Coast: New England Merchants and Sailors Approach the North American Pacific, 1780s-1820s1 July 2013.Monday, 12:00PM - 1:00PMthis event is freeJen Staver, University of California - Irvine

This program will present research from a project that investigates social and environmental change along the far Pacific coast of North America from 1760 through 1820 by focusing on knowledge of and labor in the region’s oceanic and littoral landscapes. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, Spanish missionaries and soldiers, Russian hunters, and British traders, as well as New England-based merchants and sailors, began traversing North America’s Pacific coast, forming new relationships between these ocean-based travelers, North American indigenous peoples, and the coastal environment. Using the logs and diaries of sailors as well as the journals, account books, and letters of merchants, the brown-bag presentation will focus on the specific ways that “Boston men” and their backers understood, approached, and literally navigated the physical and the social geographies of the North American Pacific.

Brown Bag"The Spirit of Enterprise excited by the Acquisition of Louisiana": New Englanders and the Orleans Territory, 1803-18123 July 2013.Wednesday, 12:00PM - 1:00PMthis event is freeLo Faber, Loyola University of New Orleans

In 1803 and 1804 New Englanders warily eyed their country's vast new acquisition. Some worried that Louisiana was a “savage,” uncivilized land that would corrupt the new nation; others that it would reduce the already-declining political importance of New England; others that it would become a new addition to the “empire of slavery.” Still others, however, especially Jeffersonian republicans, dismissed these and other concerns and celebrated the Purchase and the economic opportunities it would bring. A few went so far as to move south in search of fortunes in the Orleans Territory.

MHS TourMHS Tour: The History and Collections of the MHS6 July 2013.Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:30AMthis event is free

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

MHS TourMHS Tour: The History and Collections of the MHS13 July 2013.Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:30AMthis event is free

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Public Program, Teacher WorkshopOld Towns/New Country: The First Years of a New Nation15 July 2013 to 16 July 2013registration requiredThis workshop will take place at the Massachusetts Historical Society

This two-day workshop will focus on how to use local resources – documents, artifacts, landscapes and the rich expertise in every town – to examine historical issues with a national focus. We will concentrate on the period just after the Revolution and the concerns and conflicts, hopes and fears, experiences and expectations of the people living in the Boston area at a time of uncertainty, fragility, and possibility. We will investigate such questions as: What was it like to live in a town that had been around for a long time in a country that was new? When the nation was first forming after the Revolution, what were people in our town/region worried about? How much did the geography, economy, culture, and social makeup of our region influence those concerns? How can we find out? What resources/pieces of evidence does our community have that relate to this time period and the people living in it? How can we best present this evidence and allow people of all ages to discover answers to some of these questions? How does our local focus add a crucial dimension to our understanding of a key period in American history?

The workshop is open to teachers, librarians, archivists, members of local historical societies, and all interested local history enthusiasts. Workshop faculty will include Jayne Gordon and Kathleen Barker of the MHS Department of Education and Public Programs, Historian Benjamin Park, MHS Teacher Fellow Betsy Lambert, and Elaine Grublin, MHS Head of Reader Services. There is a $25 charge to cover lunches both days; program and material costs have been generously funded by the Saltonstall Foundation. Educators can earn 14 PDPs and 1 Graduate Credit (for an additional fee) from Framingham State University.

Additional two-day workshops will be held in the Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area towns of Leominster and Lancaster (central Massachusetts) on July 30/31, at Coolidge Point in Manchester (North Shore) on August 13/14, and in Pittsfield (Berkshires) on November 8/9.

Fashion Across Borders and Seas: Print Culture, Women's Networks, and the Creation of Feminine Identities in the British Atlantic World, 1750-190015 July 2013.Monday, 12:00PM - 1:00PMthis event is freeAnna Bonewitz, University of York

Fashion Across Borders and Seas: Print Culture, Women’s Networks, and the Creation of Feminine Identities in the British Atlantic World, 1750-1900 examines the diverse media through which women learned about fashion, and how ideas of fashion were circulated around and between Britain and the United States from the time of the enigmatic fashion doll, to the birth of modern advertising.

This project considers how the circulation of visual and material sources for fashion information such as fashion dolls, portraits, fashion illustrations, cartes-de-visite and advertisements, as well as fashion accessories created through reproductive processes such as fans and shawls, was as much a process of learning as it was of sharing. The circulation of these objects enabled women to form valuable networks whereby ideas of femininity, politics, national identity and imperialism were created, solidified and challenged.

A discussion of research into a hub of bibliomaniacs associated with the early years of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Among the circle of learned historians, friends of dusty research and poetry, were George Livermore, Charles Deane, Alexander Young, and Edward Crowninshield. Livermore was fond of bibles and illustrated and large paper copies, and Deane kept minutes of his painstaking bibliographic and historical research on fly-leaves, margins, memoranda, and scraps of paper scattered between the pages of his 13,000 books. Together, these amateur men of letters provide a unique outlook on the culture of book collecting and the formation of private and public libraries in mid-19th-century America.

Public ProgramLest We Forget: The Massachusetts 54th18 July 2013.Thursday, 12:00PM - 1:00PMthis event is freeNoah Griffin

Join us as we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment's attack against Fort Wagner, South Carolina. The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment was the first military unit consisting of black soldiers to be raised in the North during the Civil War. Prior to 1863, no concerted effort was made to recruit black troops as Union soldiers. The passage of the Emancipation Proclamation in December of 1862 provided the impetus for the use of free black men as soldiers and, at a time when state governors were responsible for the raising of regiments for federal service, Massachusetts was the first to respond with the formation of the Fifty-fourth Regiment.

Our guest speaker, Noah Griffin, is a man of many talents. Educated at Harvard Law, Yale and Fisk University, he spent 35 years in government, politics, media, and journalism before embarking on a career as a singer, actor, and inspirational speaker. Visit his website to learn more about his work: http://www.noahgriffin.com/Home.html.

Learn more about the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth, as well as the Society's manuscripts and photograph collections related to the regiment at our 54th Regiment! site.

MHS TourMHS Tour: The History and Collections of the MHS20 July 2013.Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:30AMthis event is free

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

Brown BagSpeculation Nation: Land Speculators and Land Mania in Post-Revolutionary America24 July 2013.Wednesday, 12:00PM - 1:00PMthis event is freeMichael Blaakman, Yale University

This project reconstructs the business and political methods of post-revolutionary land speculators, aiming to trace the causes and consequences of the early republic's first wave of large-scale land speculation, from 1776 to 1812. In routing their capital through the new nation’s most important resource, land speculators situated themselves at the center of contentious debates about property, equality, and political economy in a democratic republic. Speculators sought to profit off the extension of the United States' revolutionary republican society; in the process, their methods shaped and changed the Revolution's outcome.

MHS TourMHS Tour: The History and Collections of the MHS27 July 2013.Saturday, 10:00AM - 11:30AMthis event is free

Join us for a tour of the Society's public rooms. Led by an MHS staff member or docent, the tour touches on the history and collections of the MHS and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

The tour is free and open to the public. No reservation is required for individuals or small groups. Parties of 8 or more should contact the MHS prior to attending a tour. For more information please contact Curator of Art Anne Bentley at 617-646-0508 or abentley@masshist.org.

The People's Martyr tells the story of the life of Thomas Wilson Dorr and the 1842 rebellion in Rhode Island that bears his name. Thomas Dorr's attempt at constitutional reform set off a firestorm of debate over the nature of the people's sovereignty in Jacksonian America. Historian Erik J. Chaput devotes particular attention to issues of gender and race, especially the profound fears held by southern politicians that Dorr's ideology would lead to slave insurrections.

Erik J. Chaput received his doctorate in early American History from Syracuse University in 2011. Chaput is on the faculty in the School of Continuing Education at Providence College. Dr. Chaput's research has appeared in numerous publications, including Rhode Island History, Common-Place, American Nineteenth Century History, The New England Quarterly, the U.S. Catholic Historian, The Catholic Historical Review, Historical New Hampshire, and the Historical Journal of Massachusetts. Chaput is the co-editor with Russell J. DeSimone of a digital edition of the letters of Thomas Wilson Dorr. The letters are avilable on the Dorr Rebellion project site hosted by Providence College.

Teacher Workshop, Public ProgramOld Towns/New Country: The First Years of a New Nation30 July 2013 to 31 July 2013registration requiredThis workshop will take place in Lancaster & Leominster, Massachusetts, in partnership with the Freedom's Way National Heritage Area.

This two-day workshop will focus on how to use local resources – documents, artifacts, landscapes and the rich expertise in every town – to examine historical issues with a national focus. We will concentrate on the period just after the Revolution and the concerns and conflicts, hopes and fears, experiences and expectations of the people living in the Boston area at a time of uncertainty, fragility, and possibility. We will investigate such questions as: What was it like to live in a town that had been around for a long time in a country that was new? When the nation was first forming after the Revolution, what were people in our town/region worried about? How much did the geography, economy, culture, and social makeup of our region influence those concerns? How can we find out? What resources/pieces of evidence does our community have that relate to this time period and the people living in it? How can we best present this evidence and allow people of all ages to discover answers to some of these questions? How does our local focus add a crucial dimension to our understanding of a key period in American history?

The workshop is open to teachers, librarians, archivists, members of local historical societies, and all interested local history enthusiasts. Workshop faculty will include Jayne Gordon and Kathleen Barker of the MHS Department of Education and Public Programs, Freedom's Way Director of Education Maud Ayson, Historian Mary Fuhrer, MHS Teacher Fellow Timothy Castner, and Nancy Heywood, MHS Digital Projects Coordinator. Additional partners include the Freedom's Way National Heritage Area, Leominster Public Library, and the First Church of Lancaster. There is a $25 charge to cover lunches both days; program and material costs have been generously funded by the Saltonstall Foundation. Educators can earn 14 PDPs and 1 Graduate Credit (for an additional fee) from Framingham State University.

Additional two-day workshops will be held in Boston on July 15/16, at Coolidge Point in Manchester (North Shore) on August 13/14, and in Pittsfield (Berkshires) on November 8/9.

Empire of Learning: Natural Scientists and Caribbean Slavery in the Seventeenth-Century English Atlantic31 July 2013.Wednesday, 12:00PM - 1:00PMthis event is freeEric Otremba, Macalester College

This project examines confluences between the scientific and progressive ideas associated with the early English Enlightenment and the concurrent proliferation of Caribbean slave plantations. Through a study of sugar plantations, it demonstrates how both slavery and the Enlightenment shared common roots within the expansionist discourse of natural science in the late seventeenth century.